Leuser Project

Leuser Project

Referring to your article in The Jakarta Post of Nov. 26
regarding the dismissal of 200 staff members of the Leuser
Management Unit, I hereby formally disown that the European
Commission or the Delegation has any plan to close the Leuser
Development Program before its closing date. I also wish to say
that the European Commission is not dissatisfied with the
performance of the project, which it closely monitors.

Earlier this year five ambassadors and four other
representatives of embassies of European Union Member States
visited the project. They had frank and open discussions with the
project staff, representatives of central and local government,
NGOs and activists. Despite the difficulties and shortcomings
that any conservation project of this size would have
encountered, the general conclusion of this visit was that the
project was doing an impressing job.

We are fully aware that the situation in the Indonesian
forestry sector is difficult. There is no reason to deny that
illegal logging takes place inside the Leuser Development Program
area, as this takes place in many if not all conservation areas
in Indonesia. However to stop illegal logging, action is needed
from not only the law enforcing agencies, but also from the
forest industry, many of which remain dependable on illegally cut
wood to stay in business.

I also wish to express my surprise that a newspaper as
reputable as The Jakarta Post can print a story without double
checking its information. It seems to me that checking the
information before printing is one of the basic principles of
good journalism. I would have expected that Mr. Apriadi Gunawan
as a journalist working for your paper to adhere to such a basic
code of conduct. To prevent such unnecessary mistakes happening
again in the future, I suggest that you take the effort of
contacting the Delegation of the European Commission here in
Jakarta before printing any article on the Commission's
development co-operation program in Indonesia.

SABATO DELLA MONICA

Ambassador

European Commission to Indonesia,

Singapore and Brunei Darussalam